Emerging Zika serotypes may hinder vaccine development

New York, Oct 11 : Researchers have warned that the Zika virus is mutating among the infected patients so rapidly that different serotypes of the pathogen could soon appear in the near future, a development that would hinder development of vaccines and efficacy of diagnostic tests.

“Today there’s only one Zika and people become immune after being infected once,” Edison Luiz Durigon, Professor at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, said in a statement.

“But the virus is constantly mutating, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Zika 2, 3 and 4 emerging before long.”

For the study, the team closely monitored asymptomatic patients and collected samples of the patients’ blood, saliva and urine, as well as semen in the case of two men, every week to see what was different in the viral genome.

“In one patient, we found compartmentalised strains: the virus present in his semen was different from the virus in his urine. In all cases, the pathogen we found in the final stage of the infection wasn’t the same as the virus that entered the patient,” Durigon said.

The findings showed that the male patients continued to excrete large amounts of Zika virus in their semen for up to six months. They also were found to have the virus in the saliva for three months.

“Zika continued to replicate in the patient’s testicular cells all this time, and using an electron microscope, we could see that the spermatozoa were formed already infected. This means a conception could occur with infected sperm,” Durigon said.

Children who get infected by Zika during pregnancy may suffer brain damage but “the problem won’t appear until later when they start displaying motor or learning difficulties”, Durigon rued.

“We could have a generation of children with all kinds of complications and we won’t know how to deal with them.”

Manish Tiwari | Chandigarh That the bureaucracy likes to work for Capt Amarinder Singh has been amply clear from the way it responded to his leadership and command during his previous stint as Chief Minister. In the last one and half years of his tenure, especially 2005-6, most officers in the Secretariat worked hard as […]

Share this:

Manish Tiwari | Chandigarh The politics of blame game has just begun in Punjab. The Aam Aadmi Party is training its guns on the Congress and the Akali Dal for allegedly hatching a conspiracy against the Leader of Opposition, Sukhpal Singh Khaira; SAD President Sukhbir Badal sees a larger design on the part of the […]

Share this:

Manish Tiwari | Chandigarh At 75, Capt Amarinder Singh is enjoying every bit of his stint as Punjab Chief Minister. He has silenced almost all his detractors and proved beyond doubt that the 2017 election win was largely because of him alone and not his party. This done, he is playing the game of […]